Tea Party has little influence in California

For the North County Times, San Diego

From the looks of Tuesday's election results, it appears the steadily dwindling attendance at Oceanside tea party events over the last year was a pretty good indicator of the movement's lack of influence on local politics.

The 2009 Tax Day rally, featuring a march to the pier from the city center to toss bags of sand disguised as tea into the surf, attracted some 3,000 participants, according to police reports. This year's rally attracted less than half that number. And the number of empty seats seen in photos of last month's get-out-the-vote, four-hour speech fest revealed no more than about 300 to 400 in attendance throughout the afternoon.

While national tea partiers celebrated their role in helping Republicans take over the House of Representatives on Tuesday evening, the signs carried by Oceanside tea party members, promising an extreme make-over of California politics Nov. 2, resulted in the re-election of Sen. Barbara Boxer and the resurrection of Gov. Jerry Brown. The self-proclaimed tea party candidate for governor, Chelene Nightingale, whose campaign was promoted by a huge sign on a truck circling the amphitheater and a fellow in a grim reaper costume wandering through the crowd, attracted less than 2 percent of the vote.

Election results for local candidates were remarkably unsurprising, given the promises of change made by tea party leaders. County Supervisor Bill Horn was re-elected, but that may have had more to do with the $340,000 he spent on his campaign, compared to Steve Gronke's $39,000 investment, than his high-profile courting of tea partiers, who did not reciprocate by endorsing him. All local state legislator incumbents were re-elected. So much for the promise of change in Sacramento. And from their attack-mode campaign rhetoric, we're unlikely to hear how our two re-elected Congressmen will play well with others from across the aisle in Washington.

The results on the propositions were equally unsurprising. Fear of unions continues to run rampant with the passing of propositions A and G. Tea party fears of taxes and fees led to the defeat of Prop 21, and a general fear of politicians to the defeat of Prop. 27, which would have returned redistricting to the Legislature. Despite the tea party joining with big oil to urge passage of Prop. 23 to suspend the Global Warming Solutions Act, Californians showed their true color is green and handily defeated it. Voters expressed their desire to have state budgets passed on time by approving Prop 25.

Today's tea partiers, unlike those of yore, live in a democracy that gives them the right to vote and encourages the political activism on display at anti-tax rallies at facilities built with their tax dollars, like the Oceanside Pier Amphitheater. Tuesday's election results show they have far more influence east of Nevada.

Richard Riehl writes from Carlsbad. Contact him at fogcutter1@yahoo.com.

Political incivility has long history

For the North County Times

Local Oscar winner Richard Dreyfuss took his act to Solana Beach last month in observance of the day the Constitution was signed in 1787. He told eighth graders at Earl Warren Middle School that "civility is the oxygen for democracy for any democracy in the world. Without simple civility, he explained, "we will die because we demonize our opponents rather than sharing political views.

Dreyfuss has attracted national attention for his Dreyfuss Initiative to promote the teaching of civics in public schools. While he seems unaware of the civics lessons already imbedded in the California school curriculum, his crusade for a more civil political discourse is a noble quest. This year's election campaign is in dire need of adult supervision.

But does knowledge of civics necessarily lead to civility? If that were the case you'd have to assume the half-truths and outright lies parading before us endlessly in today's campaign ads come from people who don't know any better.

Dirty politics is as old as the republic itself. A few of the most egregious examples: John Adams was called a "repulsive pedant" and a "hideous hermaphroditical character" by a writer secretly paid by Thomas Jefferson. Adams supporters, in turn, accused Jefferson of favoring the "teaching of murder, rape, adultery and incest."

In the 1828 election, John Quincy Adams was called "the Pimp" by Andrew Jackson's campaign. Adams fired back with a pamphlet calling Jackson's mother a "common prostitute" brought to this country by British soldiers. James Buchanan, who had a congenital condition causing his head to tilt to the left, was accused of having failed in an attempt to hang himself.

So when tea partiers carry signs with pictures of President Barack Obams sporting a Hitler moustache and allegations that he's a Marxist, a socialist and a Muslim born in Kenya, they're simply carrying on our nation's long tradition of dirty politics, beginning with a couple of signers of the Declaration of Independence.

That, of course, doesn't justify today's political incivility. If Drefuss wants to bring good manners to politics, he should focus on adult education.

He's on the right track with his announcement of a plan to link websites this fall "representing all political opinion to discuss the state of the country" in a "national conversation." With only a week and a half before election day it's a little late to deliver on that promise.

But it's not too late for the actor to speak out against the lies being spread by those who claim to honor the Constitution. It would also set a good example for those Earl Warren eighth graders.

Union pays for Horn's signs

For the North County Times

You can tell when politicians get desperate by the way they attack their opponents with half-truths or outright lies in the final days of a campaign. Spreading fear about a lesser-known candidate is a common strategy for an incumbent running scared.

Confident candidates avoid mentioning the names of their opponents. But incumbent Bill Horn's latest mailer is more about spreading fear of what a Supervisor Steve Gronke might do rather than what Supervisor Horn has done and will do. He makes a pandering promise to "stand up for taxpayers," but unless he thinks public employees don't pay taxes, it appears Horn lives in an Orwellian world where some taxpayers are more equal than others.

You'd think Horn would feel more confident after 16 years in office. He's been able to make a lot of friends by strategically doling out his annual $2 million share of the $10 million in slush funds that supervisors enjoyed during his tenure.

Maybe what worries Horn most is that his $111,000 investment in the June primary yielded only 47,000 votes, costing him $2.80 per vote, while Gronke spent a mere $25,000 to attract 21,000 voters at $1.19 a vote.

From July through September, Horn spent another $163,000, bringing his campaign's total investment, a month before the election, to $274,000. With fewer deep pockets to tap, Gronke spent only $12,000 on his campaign during the same period, for a total of $39,000.

Horn's attack piece claims, "Steve Gronke's campaign is bankrolled by special interest public employee unions."

But Gronke's campaign consultant, Cody Campbell, told me his campaign "has not accepted money from any union or affiliated labor organization and is unaware of any monetary expenditure from labor that will go to support the campaign." He said several labor organizations have included Gronke on their list of candidates they endorse. That should come as no surprise, given Horn's outspoken disdain for unions.

I e-mailed Horn's campaign for a response, but didn't receive a reply by this column's deadline.

Horn's accusation that Gronke's campaign is being bankrolled by unions arrived in the mail the same day a public employees union was busily planting a forest of signs along North County roadways. They carry Bill Horn's name in large, flaming orange letters. At the bottom, in print so small it can't be read from more than a few feet away, we learn the signs have been, "Paid for by the Deputy Sheriffs' Association of San Diego County Political Action Fund #862122."

It seems the only candidate being bankrolled by a union is a desperate incumbent, willing to mislead his constituents and spend more than a quarter of a million dollars to buy an election.

Richard Riehl writes from Carlsbad. Contact him at fogcutter1@yahoo.com.

Why I voted for Blackburn, Douglas and Wantz

For Carlsbadistan.com

Supervisor Bill Horn’s second hit piece in two weeks landed in the mailbox the same day my absentee ballot arrived. The incumbent is using fear to keep his job for another eight years, when the new term limits law his scandal-plagued career inspired will prevent him from becoming supervisor for life. Horn’s desperate attack on his opponent, Steve Gronke, is a good example of why voters should disregard all negative campaigning in the weeks leading up to an election. It spurred me to cast my vote a month before the polls open.

In Carlsbad, North County’s Brigadoon, the campaign has been unusually civil up until now, with candidates touting their qualifications, rather than trumpeting the shortcomings of their opponents.

Mayoral candidate Matt Hall’s latest mailer refers to his opponent as “freshman councilman Keith Blackburn,” the “only council member to oppose (pension) reforms.” Well, that’s stretching the truth a bit. Blackburn is in his second year on the council, technically making him a sophomore, and he did not exactly oppose reforms.

He said he had no problem with reducing retirement benefits for new city employees, but he voted against singling out safety employees without considering the impact it might have in hiring and retaining them in a competitive local market. He is opposed to Proposition G that would give the council the power only to reduce benefits. Raising them could be done only by a vote of the people. That’s a win-win solution for incumbents who are elected to represent the people, but want to avoid hard decisions by turning them over to those who know the least about them. Blackburn’s right on both counts.

But Hall’s slight truth-stretching comes nowhere near the level of a smear campaign.

Since there’s still a month to go before the election and there’s ample time for the mudslinging to begin, here’s how I voted yesterday.

Blackburn is my clear choice for mayor. Yes, he’s been on the council for only two years, but that’s a good thing. I’ve been following the video-taped council meetings on the web during that time and Blackburn and Kulchin always seem to ask the smartest questions of staff and others who come before the council.

He and Kulchin were right about the swim complex. Had their view prevailed, Alga Norte would be under construction by now. Hall, Packard and Lewis kept that from happening. Do you suppose it’s just an election-year coincidence that the three of them joined Blackburn and Kulchin to vote to go ahead with plans for construction at the council’s September 28 meeting?

Yes, indeed, the good old boys have been good stewards of the city’s coffers, but leadership calls for more than simple stewardship.

Blackburn may be the rookie on the council, but his intelligence, educational background, service to the community, business experience, willingness to listen, and dedication to making a wealthy city even more responsive to the needs of its citizens, makes him the best candidate.

Farrah Douglas is my choice for one of the open council positions. Her unusually active experience in city government and the business community will enable her to be immediately aware of the issues facing the council. She, too, was right about Alga Norte. The money to build the swim complex was there two years ago. She was also the most articulate candidate at the forum I attended. Finally, she’ll bring gender and cultural diversity to a council badly in need of it.

My only reservation about her is her participation in the tea party events. She doesn’t strike me as someone who’s angry and believes government is the enemy. But that didn’t keep me from casting my vote for her.

Jon Wantz is my choice for the other seat on the council. He’s new to the city, but that, too is a good thing. He has the most ambitious and creative list of goals for the city with regard to attracting small business to Carlsbad, and his youth is an important element that’s been missing in a group of mostly good old boys. His service in the military required the development of leadership skills.

Wantz is far more articulate than Councilman Packard, whose questions at council meetings are remarkably shallow, and who, as a member of the North County Transit District board, cast the lone vote against installing a safety device for local railways required by the federal government. He claimed it was a symbolic vote against big government.

Take a good look at the websites and mailers of all the candidates and attend the voter forums. I think you’ll find that Hall and Packard are mostly about the past. Blackburn, Douglas and Wantz are about the future.

Want better test results? Try longer school hours

For the North County Times

Now that slightly more than half of California's students are proficient in grade level standards for English, not quite half in math, State Superintendent Jack O'Connell boasts that the state's latest school test scores have shown "steady academic progress" over the past eight years.

Scores have improved by an average of 2 percentage points each year. At this rate, it will take another 20 years for California to meet the No Child Left Behind goal of 100 percent proficiency by 2014.

O'Connell laments the lack of progress in closing the achievement gap separating Latinos, African Americans and the economically disadvantaged from their white classmates. The 20 to 30 percentage point difference in English and math scores has barely budged in a decade.

O'Connell announced two initiatives targeted to close the gap: the newly adopted Common Core standards and a book on research-based approaches to teaching English Learners. He says his staff will help schools implement the book's recommendations.

Malcolm Gladwell, in his best-selling book, "Outliers: The Story of Success," suggests the solution to improving school performance may be simpler than we think ---- more instructional time. He points to KIPP charter schools (Knowledge Is Power Program) as a model. San Diego's KIPP Adelante, the only one in the county, has achieved impressive results with the very student population O'Connell wants to help.

A public charter school enrolling 360 students in grades 5 through 8, Adelante features an extended school day (7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.), a longer school year, and monthly Saturday classes. All students are economically disadvantaged, 87 percent are Latino, 64 percent are English learners. Forty percent of their parents did not graduate from high school.

So how did they do on this year's California Standards Test? While just 28 percent of Adelante's first-year fifth-graders were proficient or above grade level in English, 75 percent of eighth-graders had attained that level. In math, 22 percent of fifth-graders were proficient, while 75 percent of eighth-graders were. The school's Academic Performance Indicator (API) places it in the top 10 percent of similar schools and top 20 percent of all schools in California.

In comparison, only 61 percent of Vista's eighth-graders scored at or above proficiency in English and only 49 percent in math, despite the district's multimillion-dollar investment over the past several years in an off-the-shelf, proprietary reading program designed to be a quick fix for low test scores.

Rather than placing his faith in revised school standards and another how-to book for teachers, maybe Superintendent O'Connell should spend more time helping California compete successfully in the Obama administration's "Race to the Top" school funding program.

It's intended to help states replicate the success of schools like KIPP Adelante.

Mayor Lewis' bedtime story

For www.carlsbadistan.com

Every hundred years the slumbering residents of Brigadoon awaken for a day to celebrate their unchanging lives, united in the knowledge that if anybody leaves town, their enchanted village will disappear forever.

Last week at the Dove Library, Carlsbad’s 2010 state of the city video (embedded above) gave a hundred local residents their annual reassurance that all is well in their village, and they can keep it that way by not leaving town to shop.

Mayor Bud Lewis explained there’d be no questions allowed from the floor because he didn’t want the event to become an election forum. You could approach staff and council members individually with your questions after the show.

Mythical cities dislike public discord.

The mayor then introduced city council members and candidates for the November election. Since nobody but current office holders showed up, skeptics might ask if challengers had been told they’d be introduced, especially since the mayor has been a strong supporter of Matt Hall for mayor and Mark Packard to retain his seat on the council.

Despite Lewis’s promise to keep politics out of the evening’s presentation, he couldn’t resist putting a spin on how he wants folks to vote in November. He outlined what he considered to be the four most important issues facing the city next year. Only one of them, the sustainability of Carlsbad’s water supply, was non-political. The others: his successor’s vision for the city, a warning about union control of the council and public employee pensions were all about politics.

Lewis urged passage of Proposition G, on the ballot this fall, which would require a vote of the people for future increases in police and firefighter retirement benefits but only a majority vote of the council to reduce them. He didn’t explain why safety employees should be singled out. Nor did he say why our elected representatives can’t be trusted to take full responsibility for fair and competitive pay and benefits for all city employees.

Prop. G amounts to a no-lose strategy for office holders. Given today’s anti-government rhetoric, a politician’s future is more threatened by raising city worker benefits than by cutting them. It’s a familiar game: when you campaign for office boast of your knowledge, experience and wisdom to do the right thing; then, after you’re elected, turn over the tough decisions to voters—the same ones who voted for you because you claimed to be smarter than they were.

The 17-minute video was an overview of the city’s efforts to retain its natural beauty, quality of life and economic stability. It celebrated Carlsbad’s commitment to desalination, water recycling and energy conservation.

During a five-minute segment on financial planning, seven charts flashed across the screen at the rate of 8 seconds each, depicting the city’s expenses, taxes and revenues. The narrator’s brief commentary raised more questions than answers. It was a kind of shell game for viewers to guess what nuggets of information might be uncovered before a chart disappeared from the screen.

We learned, for example, that $10 million was slashed from the general fund and 25 employee positions were eliminated over the last two years. But we weren’t told what services were sacrificed, other than the delayed construction of a park, identified by name only, rather than as the site for a long-promised community swimming pool.

Viewers were left to conclude that having to wait for a new city park has been the city’s only hardship caused by the recession.

There was no mention of Carlsbad’s unemployment rate. Or whether anyone cares about how many jobs will be lost with Callaway Golf’s announcement of moving its operations to Mexico. Or how much longer taxpayers will be required to bail out the failing golf course. Or what’s become of Proposition C, the 2002 voter-approved plan for the city to purchase more open space.

This state of the city report was all about business-friendliness, infrastructure repairs, careful planning and prudent spending. Support for the arts, youth activities, the growing senior population, the community’s burgeoning ethnic diversity, and affordable housing went unmentioned.

The only challenge facing the city next year, according to this feel-good video, is to stop a power plant from being built near the beach so developers will be able to descend on Ponto, identified only as the “South Carlsbad Redevelopment Zone.”

Are North County’s Brigadoon villagers content with their yearly bedtime story? Stay tuned for November’s election results.

Carlsbad as our Brigadoon

For the North County Times

Every hundred years the slumbering residents of Brigadoon awaken for a day to celebrate their unchanging lives, united in the knowledge that if anybody leaves town, their enchanted village will disappear forever.

Last week at the Dove Library, Carlsbad's 2010 state of the city video gave a hundred local residents their annual reassurance that all is well in their village, and they can keep it that way by not leaving town to shop.

Mayor Bud Lewis explained there'd be no questions allowed from the floor because he didn't want the event to become an election forum. You could approach staff and council members individually with your questions after the show.

Mythical cities dislike public discord.

The 17-minute video was an overview of the city's efforts to retain its natural beauty, quality of life and economic stability. It celebrated Carlsbad's commitment to desalination, water recycling and energy conservation.

During a five-minute segment on financial planning, seven charts flashed across the screen at the rate of 8 seconds each, depicting the city's expenses, taxes and revenues. The narrator's brief commentary raised more questions than answers. It was a kind of shell game for viewers to guess what nuggets of information might be uncovered before a chart disappeared from the screen.

We learned, for example, that $10 million was slashed from the general fund and 25 employee positions were eliminated over the last two years. But we weren't told what services were sacrificed, other than the delayed construction of a park, identified by name only, rather than the site for a long-promised community swimming pool.

Viewers were left to conclude that having to wait for a new city park has been the city's only hardship caused by the recession.

There was no mention of Carlsbad's unemployment rate. Or whether anyone cares about how many jobs will be lost with Callaway Golf's announcement of moving its operations to Mexico. Or how much longer taxpayers will be required to bail out the failing golf course. Or what's become of Proposition C, the 2002 voter-approved plan for the city to purchase more open space.

This state of the city report was all about business-friendliness, infrastructure repairs, careful planning and prudent spending. Support for the arts, youth activities, the growing senior population, the community's burgeoning ethnic diversity, and affordable housing went unmentioned.

The only challenge facing the city next year, according to this feel-good video, is to stop a power plant from being built near the beach so developers will be able to descend on Ponto, identified only as the "South Carlsbad Redevelopment Zone."

Are North County's Brigadoon villagers content with their yearly bedtime story? Stay tuned for November's election results.